Deuteronomy 1

• 1. This book records the words that Moses spoke to all the people of Israel while they were in the wilderness east of the Jordan River. They were camped in the Jordan Valley near Suph, between Paran on one side and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab on the other.
• 2. Normally it takes only eleven days to travel from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, going by way of Mount Seir.
• 3. But forty years after the Israelites left Mount Sinai, on a day in midwinter, Moses gave these speeches to the Israelites, telling them everything the LORD had commanded him to say.
• 4. This was after he had defeated King Sihon of the Amorites, who had ruled in Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, who had ruled in Ashtaroth and Edrei.
• 5. So Moses addressed the people of Israel while they were in the land of Moab east of the Jordan River. He began to explain the law as follows:
• 6. "When we were at Mount Sinai, the LORD our God said to us, `You have stayed at this mountain long enough.
• 7. It is time to break camp and move on. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the neighboring regions--the Jordan Valley, the hill country, the western foothills, the Negev, and the coastal plain. Go to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, and all the way to the great Euphrates River.
• 8. I am giving all this land to you! Go in and occupy it, for it is the land the LORD swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to all their descendants.'
• 9. "At that time I told you, `You are too great a burden for me to carry all by myself.
• 10. The LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars!
• 11. And may the LORD, the God of your ancestors, multiply you a thousand times more and bless you as he promised!
• 12. But how can I settle all your quarrels and problems by myself?
• 13. Choose some men from each tribe who have wisdom, understanding, and a good reputation, and I will appoint them as your leaders.'
• 14. "You agreed that my plan was a good one.
• 15. So I took the wise and respected men you had selected from your tribes and appointed them to serve as judges and officials over you. Some were responsible for a thousand people, some for a hundred, some for fifty, and some for ten.
• 16. I instructed the judges, `You must be perfectly fair at all times, not only to fellow Israelites, but also to the foreigners living among you.
• 17. When you make decisions, never favor those who are rich; be fair to lowly and great alike. Don't be afraid of how they will react, for you are judging in the place of God. Bring me any cases that are too difficult for you, and I will handle them.'
• 18. And at that time I gave you instructions about everything you were to do.
• 19. "Then, just as the LORD our God directed us, we left Mount Sinai and traveled through the great and terrifying wilderness, which you yourselves saw, and headed toward the hill country of the Amorites. When we arrived at Kadesh-barnea,
• 20. I said to you, `You have now reached the land that the LORD our God is giving us.
• 21. Look! He has placed it in front of you. Go and occupy it as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. Don't be afraid! Don't be discouraged!'
• 22. "But you responded, `First, let's send out scouts to explore the land for us. They will advise us on the best route to take and decide which towns we should capture.'
• 23. This seemed like a good idea to me, so I chose twelve scouts, one from each of your tribes.
• 24. They crossed into the hills and came to the valley of Eshcol and explored it.
• 25. They picked some of its fruit and brought it back to us. And they reported that the land the LORD our God had given us was indeed a good land.
• 26. "But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God and refused to go in.
• 27. You murmured and complained in your tents and said, `The LORD must hate us, bringing us here from Egypt to be slaughtered by these Amorites.
• 28. How can we go on? Our scouts have demoralized us with their report. They say that the people of the land are taller and more powerful than we are, and that the walls of their towns rise high into the sky! They have even seen giants there--the descendants of Anak!'
• 29. "But I said to you, `Don't be afraid!
• 30. The LORD your God is going before you. He will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt.
• 31. And you saw how the LORD your God cared for you again and again here in the wilderness, just as a father cares for his child. Now he has brought you to this place.'
• 32. But even after all he did, you refused to trust the LORD your God,
• 33. who goes before you looking for the best places to camp, guiding you by a pillar of fire at night and a pillar of cloud by day.
• 34. "When the LORD heard your complaining, he became very angry. So he solemnly swore,
• 35. `Not one of you from this entire wicked generation will live to see the good land I swore to give your ancestors,
• 36. except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see this land because he has followed the LORD completely. I will give to him and his descendants some of the land he walked over during his scouting mission.'
• 37. "And the LORD was also angry with me because of you. He said to me, `You will never enter the Promised Land!
• 38. Instead, your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will lead the people into the land. Encourage him as he prepares to enter it.
• 39. I will give the land to your innocent children. You were afraid they would be captured, but they will be the ones who occupy it.
• 40. As for you, turn around now and go on back through the wilderness toward the Red Sea. '
• 41. "Then you confessed, `We have sinned against the LORD! We will go into the land and fight for it, as the LORD our God has told us.' So your men strapped on their weapons, thinking it would be easy to conquer the hill country.
• 42. "But the LORD said to me, `Tell them not to attack, for I will not go with them. If they do, they will be crushed by their enemies.'
• 43. This is what I told you, but you would not listen. Instead, you again rebelled against the LORD's command and arrogantly went into the hill country to fight.
• 44. But the Amorites who lived there came out against you like a swarm of bees. They chased and battered you all the way from Seir to Hormah.
• 45. Then you returned and wept before the LORD, but he refused to listen.
• 46. So you stayed there at Kadesh for a long time.

Psalms 81

• 1. Sing praises to God, our strength. Sing to the God of Israel.
• 2. Sing! Beat the tambourine. Play the sweet lyre and the harp.
• 3. Sound the trumpet for a sacred feast when the moon is new, when the moon is full.
• 4. For this is required by the laws of Israel; it is a law of the God of Jacob.
• 5. He made it a decree for Israel when he attacked Egypt to set us free. I heard an unknown voice that said,
• 6. "Now I will relieve your shoulder of its burden; I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.
• 7. You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you; I answered out of the thundercloud. I tested your faith at Meribah, when you complained that there was no water.
• 8. "Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings. O Israel, if you would only listen!
• 9. You must never have a foreign god; you must not bow down before a false god.
• 10. For it was I, the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things.
• 11. "But no, my people wouldn't listen. Israel did not want me around.
• 12. So I let them follow their blind and stubborn way, living according to their own desires.
• 13. But oh, that my people would listen to me! Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths!
• 14. How quickly I would then subdue their enemies! How soon my hands would be upon their foes!
• 15. Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him; their desolation would last forever.
• 16. But I would feed you with the best of foods. I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock."

Psalms 82

• 1. God presides over heaven's court; he pronounces judgment on the judges:
• 2. "How long will you judges hand down unjust decisions? How long will you shower special favors on the wicked?
• 3. "Give fair judgment to the poor and the orphan; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute.
• 4. Rescue the poor and helpless; deliver them from the grasp of evil people.
• 5. But these oppressors know nothing; they are so ignorant! And because they are in darkness, the whole world is shaken to the core.
• 6. I say, `You are gods and children of the Most High.
• 7. But in death you are mere men. You will fall as any prince, for all must die.'"
• 8. Rise up, O God, and judge the earth, for all the nations belong to you.

Isaiah 29

• 1. "Destruction is certain for Ariel, the City of David. Year after year you offer your many sacrifices.
• 2. Yet I will bring disaster upon you, and there will be much weeping and sorrow. For Jerusalem will become as her name Ariel means--an altar covered with blood.
• 3. I will be your enemy, surrounding Jerusalem and attacking its walls. I will build siege towers around it and will destroy it.
• 4. Your voice will whisper like a ghost from the earth where you will lie buried.
• 5. "But suddenly, your ruthless enemies will be driven away like chaff before the wind.
• 6. In an instant, I, the LORD Almighty, will come against them with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and storm and consuming fire.
• 7. All the nations fighting against Jerusalem will vanish like a dream! Those who are attacking her walls will vanish like a vision in the night.
• 8. A hungry person dreams of eating but is still hungry. A thirsty person dreams of drinking but is still faint from thirst when morning comes. In the same way, your enemies will dream of a victorious conquest over Jerusalem, but all to no avail."
• 9. Are you amazed and incredulous? Do you not believe it? Then go ahead and be blind if you must. You are stupid, but not from wine! You stagger, but not from beer!
• 10. For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has closed the eyes of your prophets and visionaries.
• 11. All these future events are a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, "We can't read it because it is sealed."
• 12. When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, "Sorry, we don't know how to read."
• 13. And so the Lord says, "These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. And their worship of me amounts to nothing more than human laws learned by rote.
• 14. Because of this, I will do wonders among these hypocrites. I will show that human wisdom is foolish and even the most brilliant people lack understanding."
• 15. Destruction is certain for those who try to hide their plans from the LORD, who try to keep him in the dark concerning what they do! "The LORD can't see us," you say to yourselves. "He doesn't know what is going on!"
• 16. How stupid can you be? He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you. You are only the jars he makes! Should the thing that was created say to the one who made it, "He didn't make us"? Does a jar ever say, "The potter who made me is stupid"?
• 17. Soon--and it will not be very long--the wilderness of Lebanon will be a fertile field once again. And the fertile fields will become a lush and fertile forest.
• 18. In that day deaf people will hear words read from a book, and blind people will see through the gloom and darkness.
• 19. The humble will be filled with fresh joy from the LORD. Those who are poor will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
• 20. Those who intimidate and harass will be gone, and all those who plot evil will be killed.
• 21. Those who make the innocent guilty by their false testimony will disappear. And those who use trickery to pervert justice and tell lies to tear down the innocent will be no more.
• 22. That is why the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says to the people of Israel, "My people will no longer pale with fear or be ashamed.
• 23. For when they see their many children and material blessings, they will recognize the holiness of the Holy One of Israel. They will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
• 24. Those in error will then believe the truth, and those who constantly complain will accept instruction.

New Living Translation: 148 of 365 days.